


Lean on (English ver.)

by ScissorsParchment



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:48:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26334391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScissorsParchment/pseuds/ScissorsParchment
Summary: All that mattered was that they were alive and leaning on each other, as they had done on those warm afternoons millennia ago, sitting between instruments, test tubes and datapads lit up by the main star.
Relationships: Skyfire/Starscream (Transformers)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 28
Collections: SkyStar Week 2020





	Lean on (English ver.)

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Lean on (中文版)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25802335) by [ScissorsParchment](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScissorsParchment/pseuds/ScissorsParchment). 



> For SkyStar Week 2020

The shuttle’s frame was covered in damages and electrical injuries. Fresh energon flowed over the dried, staining his thick armors so much that their original whiteness could hardly be seen. The energon ran down his leg over his shattered knee joints, and finally formed a small pond under his peds. The energon flow was pretty slow, though, for there was not much left in him to bleed.

He was desperate for recharge. But the chains hanging his wrists overhead were not strained, so once he bent his legs in weariness, he would pull at the high-voltage cables that pierced his shoulder armors, causing it to discharge. The acute pain then forced him to wake up and stand upright, pressing his weight against his broken knees. He could not remember being unable to recharge for how many solar cycles. That was worse than all the other tortures he had endured in this dungeon.

His enemies meant to destroy his will by torturing him and depriving him of sleep, but sadly, their effort on turning him into "a qualified Decepticon" had so far been a failure. Thanks to him as a scientist, his scientific acumen, though not specialized in brain modules, had helped him a lot in resisting Shockwave’s brainwashing devices.

He closed the optics tightly. There was nothing to see in the dungeon, and visual sensing consumed energy, so these days he barely opened his optics even when facing his interrogators. Except when one of them presented.

The Decepticon Air Commander came only a couple of times, always with his leader. During Skyfire's suffering or Megatron's roars, Starscream kept a poker face, expressionless, and usually with his servos crossed. But as the scientist struggled to focus his optics on the red-lined white wings, he noticed their occasional tremors, albeit strongly repressed.

Recalling the tremor of those wings, Skyfire showed a hint of smile on the corner of his energon-stained lips. He felt a bit content, then suddenly discontent, and wanted to see the jet again. He was unsure whether tomorrow or his permanent offline would come earlier.

There was a sudden burst of pedsteps and shouts outside the cell. Skyfire was pricking up his audio sensors to hear when the cell door opened with a loud clatter. A mech rushed in and pointed a ray gun at him.

In a nanoclick, blue-white light flashed from the gun and hit his shoulders, leading to sharp pains there, and then numbness immediately. The blue-white light ray widened and enveloped the electric shock and restraining devices beside him. The devices rattled for a short while, then all the indicator lamps on them went out. The mech lowered his ray gun and rushed up to him, rising himself to the shuttle’s optic level in an anti-gravity manner.

The shuttle gasped with his dry, hoarse throat at the sight of the underside of the other's carbon-gray, delicate faceplate.

"Scream-"

"Shhh..." The jet hissed intermittently. With his thrusters on, he moved himself over to face one shoulder of the shuttle, raised the strangely shaped clippers in his servo, and cut on the cable that ran through his shoulder.

Starscream looked terrifying even the underside of its faceplate did not count. The right one of his proud red-and-white wings was almost gone. The outer side of his right arm was smashed, and energon bubbled out of the wires in his right arm, as well as his other gunshot wounds on the waist and leg. What stroke Skyfire most was that the Air Commander, known for his chatter, might only be able to hiss now.

The wires in the front of Starscream's neck were torn and twisted. The position where his vocal had been now remained only a broken notch, together with broken ends of the wires.

His vocal was crushed by servo, and Skyfire knew whose servo it was. There might be only one mech on this Decepticon base who had the strength to do so on such a skillful fighter as the Air Commander. Also, the curved sections and burn marks at the base of the remaining of Starscream’s right wing were clearly the work of the fusion cannon.

Having his shoulders frozen and the electric shock device short-circuited by Starscream’s null-ray, Skyfire felt no pain as the severed cables slid out of the protomatter of his shoulders, but only a sensation of nausea. Then the jet rose up a little further, trying to clip the chains that were hanging the shuttle's wrists. But the chain, in reinforced material, didn't break even after he used his ray gun.

Deflated, Starscream grounded and looked up at Skyfire, patting the protective cover of the aerial cannon on his flank. Seeing the hollow in his throat again, Skyfire turned his face slightly away and nodded. He had yet run out of ammunition at the time of his capture. The Decepticons made no effort to remove the ammunition, considering that it was so deeply charged in his frame that forceful removal might cause his cannons to discharge. They simply put an inhibitor collar on him to force offline his weapon system.

Starscream immediately rose up again and demounted the inhibitor collar from the shuttle’s neck. Thank Primus that no one had time to abolish such authority of Starscream, thought Skyfire. Then the protective covers on his flanks were thrown open, and his cannons fired. The guided bombs turned 180 degrees and crashed into the joints between the chains and the ceiling.

The roof shocked violently, and shrapnels showered down on the shuttle like molten lava. "Get out of the way!" Skyfire cried, but his voice was drowned out by the roar of the bombs. Starscream, apparently, did not prepared to listen anyway. The shuttle could no longer support himself with his shattered knees, and just as he fell forward, Starscream turned and caught him on his back.

The jet moaned and was pinned down on one knee. With his shoulders frozen, Skyfire could not move his arms, so Starscream had to use his remaining left servo to pull forward the broad arms of the shuttle on his back, letting Skyfire to hold him on his shoulder blades.

Like what they had done countless times before the war.

Starscream staggered to his peds, and shouldered the shuttle out of the cell. Across the dungeon’s corridor scattered Decepticon guards, but none of them seemed harmed. Starscream raised his left arm and fired null-ray at a guard whose hand was slightly moving, making the guard lie still again. Sure enough, all the guards were just knocked out by the null-ray.

"This multi-functional invention of yours is more useful than any of my previous ones." Skyfire whispered to his younger schoolmate in the Academy of Sciences who had stamped his ped many times due to being second to him in academic achievements. Although Starscream had used this invention to shoot him the last time they met in the battle. In their second-to-last encounter, they had fired at each other in the air and fallen to the valley beyond the battlefield. Then they rolled on the ground, grappling. And the grapple had soon turned into bites and kisses.

Why can't you come back…can you? the Decepticons air commander had cried in a voice almost unheard of. But the shuttle had been silent.

Hearing Skyfire's compliment, Starscream gave a hollow laugh with his empty throat. Half-lugging and half-carrying the shuttle several times heavier than himself, he struggled toward the other end of the corridor, almost kneeling at every other step. Every time he knelt, Skyfire struck the ground as well from his waist down. In the clattering clashes between their frames and the ground, their energon dripped down continuously, mingling in the wide bloodstains trailing behind. The squeak of the jet's cooling fans even overwhelmed that of the shuttle, and his ventilation system sizzled like a broken engine, causing a burst of pain in the shuttle's spark.

Finally they reached the lift at the end of the corridor. Starscream fell in with Skyfire’s upper frame, then he got out of the gap between the shuttle and the floor, jammed the lift door with one servo, and kicked the shuttle's legs into the lift. Then the lift door closed and the lift went up.

Outside the other door of the lift stood a small spaceship with no portholes, painted with grey stealthy coating. Starscream tried again to hold the shuttle's shoulders to carry him, but Skyfire nudged him away.

"I can move now." The shuttle’s deep voice was tinged with gasps. The anesthetic effect brought by the null-ray was fading, the sharp pain in his shoulders had returned, but his arms had also regained some mobility. He lifted himself on his elbows, pulled himself forward with his broken knees, and crawled toward the ship as fast as he could.

The jet stayed on his side, holding his arm, and finally got him into the cabin of the spaceship. He tucked the shuttle’s calfs, which were almost the size of his torso, into the door. The seats in the cabin had been removed, but there was still barely room for Skyfire. Starscream wedged himself between the shuttle's legs - the only space left in the cabin - and crawled onto the console to launch the spaceship. A line flashed on the control screen:

_Destination: The Shelter_

Then the spaceship lifted off.

Starscream fell back on Skyfire’s chestplate, panted for a short while, then opened the cabinet under the console with his remaining left servo, and pulled out a electric welder and two cans. He tore open a can with his teeth, and twisted around to lift the can to Skyfire’s mouth.

Skyfire drained the can with it in the jet’s servo. Indeed his servos could move now, but were still unable to perform such fine movements as holding something to drink for the moment. The cool, medicinal tasted liquid glided down his throat. It was medgrade, perfect for replenishing the energon they had lost.

Starscream ripped open another can of drink and gobbled it down. Then he turned on the electric welder, weld up the fastest bleeding breakage in his waist, got up on his knees to seal several large open wounds in the shuttle, and finally sealed the rest of his own wounds.

"Scream, what happened?" Skyfire whispered when the repair was done. Once more, he regretted having deleted the comm. channel between them - when they had broken up long ago - the other had also deleted him, though. Neither of them had expected that Starscream, with a mouth that could infuriate anyone, would ever be unable to speak.

Starscream flicked his chin once and sneered, seemingly to complain how late this question was asked. He pointed at the half-smashed Autobot insignia centering at the cockpit in the shuttle’s midsection, retracted his servo to thumb on his own left wing, indicating the Decepticon insignia, then fisted his left servo to touch the mutilated right one. Finally he put his left palm at the shuttle's throat, his lips forming the word "Mega".

"The Autobots attacked here. Megatron was afraid he would have to yield this base and had me rescued, so he decided to finish me." Skyfire affirmed, being sure he had got it right. It made sense, he had been held in dungeon, so he couldn't hear however the battle raged aboveground. “Is 'the Shelter' a refuge base you prepared in case your treachery gets caught?"

The jet forced a smug smile. For one with a legendary record of betrayal like him, it was impossible to not have some extra hideouts, of course.

"... This seems the first time you really betray the Decepticons." Said Skyfire, after hesitating for a moment, "Your many rebellions before were basically, instead, against Megatron. For me... you'd rather give up your ambition for power?"

Starscream's smile disappeared . His glared at the shuttle with his crimson optics, his lips twisted, and he landed a blow, feebly, on the shuttle's battered chest cockpit.

The big scientist giggled and narrowed his optics. His azure optics were dimmed by weakness, but were as calm as ever. However much anger his lover threw at him, it had melted in the two azure seas.

"I was wrong, I was wrong. You would never let me die, and neither would I." He said.

The jet squinted and laughed again. He climbed up the shuttle on his servos and knees, pulling himself to his chest, and bit right to Skyfire’s lips.

Skyfire reached his arms around the jet's waist, and tilted his own head to meet him. The flavor of fresh energon rushed into the shuttle's mouth, and the teeth of the two almost collided. But then they just pressed their lips tenderly against the other’s and went no deeper.

The jet's optics dimmed slowly, and he slid down the shuttle’s chest. Listening to his steady cooling fans and ventilation, Skyfire knew that he had slipped into recharge, exhausted.

He turned Starscream over against himself. Scream might not be able to return to the Decepticons, he thought, but his joining the Autobots also seems impossible. It would be good enough if he can remain neutral, like what he have joked in the Academy of Sciences, to "be a cosmic profiteer" if he could not stand being discriminated as a scientist with cold-constructed war frame... At least they will not be forced to fire on each other anymore.

All that mattered was that they were alive and leaning on each other, as they had done on those warm afternoons millennia ago, sitting between instruments, test tubes and datapads lit up by the main star.

His optics also went offline. He was finally able to recharge, and they could still have a break before reaching the Shelter.


End file.
